Quick facts

Using basic care practices daily can help you reduce calf illness and death on your farm.

Management greatly impacts the illness and death rates of calves. There’s no single best way to raise calves. What works on one farm may not be ideal for another farm. But you should have and enforce a newborn protocol and calf care plan that remains consistent from day to day.

Consider the following when evaluating care practices on your farm.

Nutrition

Health care

Growth

Labor efficiency

Capital

Operation and maintenance costs

Poor facilities and improper animal care make raising healthy calves impossible. Recognizing this and understanding calf growth, nutrition, health and behavior can help you successfully care for your calves. The following practices for raising calves can:

Decrease the exposure of calves to disease.

Improve calf health.

Improve calf survivability.

Improve growth rates.

Calf growth

You should use both survival and growth rates to measure calf-raising success. Dairy replacement growth rates ultimately affect the timing of puberty. This affects the age of first freshening and lactation milk production.

Disease can harm calf growth rate and create chronic problems that limit the calf from reaching full genetic potential. Calves that have recovered from illness will likely lag behind healthy herdmates by weeks or months. If their illness was severe enough or long term, permanent damage or chronic pain may result in these animals becoming economic risks.

Properly raised calves will be healthy and ready to freshen between 22 and 24 months.

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Heifer target growth curves are available by breed.

Measure and record heart girth and wither height in inches

Weigh calves using a scale or regular tape measure

Check height using a yardstick or altimeter stick with parallel level bar

Calculate:

Average daily gain (ADG)

Percent of weight-gain goal for each heifer

Averages for the group

Graph the number of heifer calves with weights above or below optimum by age. A computer program can help you with this.

More dystocias (obstructed birth) and maternal problems or death

More calf deaths

Decreased production of heifers (energy demands for growth vs.
production)

In Holsteins, for each pound of body weight less than 1250 pounds at first calving, milk decreases by 6 pounds per lactation. For example, a heifer weighing 1050 pounds at calving (200 pounds less than a 1250-pound goal) would produce 1200 pounds less milk that lactation.

Decreased lifetime milk production of the animal.

Decrease in the number of heifers for replacement, which limits culling ability or increases the need to buy replacements.

Increased growth days results in higher heifer rearing costs prior to her first entry into the milking herd.

Preventing disease

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Changes in routine can cause stress in calves. When animals become stressed, they are more likely to get sick. Feed changes, housing changes and crowding can stress calves and cause digestive upset and scours.

Other stressors include:

Ear tagging

Dehorning/disbudding

Transporting

Improper handling of calves

Have a biosecurity program. Control and monitor all livestock, equipment and people entering your calf facility. Seek advice from your local veterinarian in planning your disease prevention and treatment program.

Personnel

Don’t use equipment or share feeding utensils between animals or pens without sanitizing them first.

Have the same person(s) handle the cows daily to reduce disease transmission between animals.

Monitoring calves

Use a rectal thermometer regularly to help detect early fever in sick calves. The normal body temperature for calves is 101.5 F.

Separate calves so they can’t make physical contact with each other. This will allow you to watch calves individually during the crucial pre-weaning stage. Or monitor them closely if they are group housed prior to weaning.

Additional biosecurity practices

Manage infection sources, especially feces. Water, feed utensils, rodents, birds, pets or people can also be sources of infection.

Deliver the calf on to a clean plastic sheet rather than into bedding.

After a calf is born, rub it dry with clean cloths. Don’t use bedding or feed bags. Wipe the nostrils free of mucus.

Always remove calves right away from the cow, urine, and feces.

When doing chores, work from the youngest to oldest animals.

Isolate sick calves and feed and handle them last.

Use individual maternity pens and sanitize them between calving. This includes removing bedding, manure, and other material from previous births. Each cow that enters the maternity pen brings in pathogens.

Wash, disinfect and dry individual hutches, stalls or pens between calves. Scrape the ground to a fresh level of dirt and remove all leftover organic material.

Calf feeding practices

Following birth:

Clean the cow’s teats before the calf nurses or remove the calf from the cow and maternity area right away.

Manually feed calves high-quality colostrum as soon as possible.

Provide fresh, clean calf starter, milk replacer and water every day. Make sure you offer water at least twice daily. Place these outside the pen to reduce urine and manure contamination. This will also keep spilled liquid feed and water away from the calf’s bedding.

During the preweaning period, make sure the calves’ diet (liquid feed, forage, and grain) are all high quality. Research shows poor nutrition between weaning and 6 months of age can cause these animals to have on average,

A 4.5-month delay in age at first calving

Reduced growth rate

Increased risk of being culled as a cow

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You can prevent feed waste by using large buckets and placing them at the proper height according to breed and calf size. Don’t feed leftover grain from individual calf buckets to other calves in individual housing or to any calf under 6 months of age.

Store your calves’ grain in a place where you can prevent rodent problems. Store grain delivered in bulk within a metal bin, which you can move electrically by auger. Walk-in grain rooms tend to be feeding spots for rodents.

Milk, feed and water buckets are breeding grounds for pathogens, disease-causing organisms. Thus, you should have a routine plan for washing and sanitizing utensils during calf chores.

Thoroughly clean and disinfect all feeding utensils after each use.

Avoid using feed buckets with scratches (plastic) or rough surfaces that allow bacteria to grow on them.

Have enough utensils so you can clean and disinfect them between uses, especially with sick calves. Always disinfect shared nipples or buckets between calves.

Use chlorhexidine (3 ounces per gallon) to disinfect during feeding.

Don’t use a dairy chlorine sanitizer. Milk residue inactivates the chlorine and leads to poor disinfection.

Sanitize balling guns and stomach tubes with chlorhexidine (3 ounces per gallon). Avoid using common esophageal feeders for tubing newborn calves with colostrum and sick calves with fluids.

Be aware of your utensil storage area. Most storage areas are ideal for bacterial growth—moist, no sunlight, poor air flow. Research shows that these conditions allow bacteria to reproduce at least once an hour and often twice in the same time.

Cleaning procedure for utensils

Rinse containers with lukewarm water before washing. Hot water makes the milk proteins stick to the surfaces.

Rinse with as hot of water as possible, at least 120 F.

Use a water-bleach solution for washing: 1 cup of household-strength bleach to 5 gallons of hot water. If you have calves with scours, use 1.5 cups to 5 gallons.

Soak utensils in water-bleach solution for as long as possible. The longer the utensils soak, the more bacteria the chlorine will kill.

When pouring from pail to pail, let the solution sit in each pail for as long as possible.

Soak nipples in the solution.

Fill the bottles with the solution.

Use a wash acid at about 1 ounce to 5 gallons of lukewarm water. This will rid containers of remaining milk solids. A lower surface pH prevents most bacteria from growing.

Allow containers to completely dry between uses.

Avoid stacking pails inside each other until fully dry.

Never set freshly washed pails upside down on a concrete floor. Hang them up.

Housing

Calf housing should be completely separate from the main dairy housing barn and have separate ventilation. Keep ventilation inlets and windows screened at all times to control flies.

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Hutches

Calf hutches should:

Provide maximum air flow.

Protect the calf from weather elements including the sun in the summer months.

Allow warmth from the sun in the winter months.

Allow calves easy access to feed and water.

Allow for easy cleaning and sanitizing.

Keep hutches far enough apart so that calves can’t come into contact with each other. Also be sure the hutches drain water and urine, so the calves stay dry. It’s better to have the hutch or hutch area slope slightly away from the hutch than for it to be wet.

The "super calf hutch" or "counter slope barn” designs are ideal for grouping and feeding calves after weaning. They are also easy to clean.

Shelters

Open-front shelters with individual pens should be easy to access with a skid-steer loader or small bucket tractor when cleaning.

In cold weather

Place a plywood cover over the rear part of the pen to reduce drafts and to keep in the calf’s heat.

In warm or hot weather:

Use a removable panel at the back of the shelter and open it to provide more air flow.

Select shelters with upright or nearly upright sidewalls to reduce leaks from runoff. Move the pens further in if rain or snow blows inside.

Place the shelter where it can catch the wind in the summer and the sunlight in the winter.

Greenhouses

Monitor air temperature and quality throughout the day in greenhouses. This will allow you to adjust the natural ventilation as needed to make the environment good for calves.

Move pens away from the sidewalls if rain or snow blows in. Using a well-graded stone base will promote draining.

Disease resistance differs between calves of different ages. Thus, don’t allow older and younger calves to have physical contact during the first three to four months of age.

Group post-weaned calves by age and size with three to five animals per group. Groups of 6 to 12 are ok when calves reach about 4 months of age. This approach lessens the calve’s competition for feed.

Large-group pen housing increases the odds of respiratory disease and diarrhea. It’s natural for calves to lie next to each other. Thus, calves of different ages in large groups are more prone to respiratory illness. Diarrhea in group housing is more severe than cases in individual housing.

Bedding

Bedding plays a key role in calf comfort. Managing bedding during early preweaning is important. An ample, dry bed of fluffy material can:

Provide a cushioned resting surface

Help calves stay clean

Act as a moisture absorption media

Decrease the risks of disease

Reduce stress

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Overall, bedding types don’t affect average daily gain and dry matter intake of calves with proper management. There are many types of bedding including:

Straw

Shavings

Sawdust

Sand

Gravel

Fly control

Of the bedding types, straw promotes the highest fly populations.

Sawdust is less desirable for maggot growth because it

Poorly absorbs liquid.

Has little organic matter.

Is harder to breakdown.

Comfort

Sand and gravel bedding tend to compact and get dirty after a few weeks. Adding fresh
straw over soiled bedding will keep the calf comfortable. But this will allow the bedding to hold more moisture and possibly ferment.

Shavings and sawdust differ in size, which can affect animal comfort and productivity. Thus, you should use a reputable supplier for bedding.

A clean living space reduces the number of pathogens the calf must overcome. In dirty conditions, calves use energy to fight mud, heat or pathogens. In clean conditions, calves can use this energy for growth and maturing instead.

Check calf bedding regularly to make sure it isn’t constantly wet. Pathogens don't do as well in dry environments.

Don’t walk or use equipment between pens and animals. People and equipment can spread disease.

Always replace bedding between calves.

Provide deep bedding if your hutches are directly on the ground or other solid surface.

Environment

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Proper ventilation moves air and provides fresh air to:

Remove organisms from the environment

Lessen dust

Remove harmful odors

Remove extra moisture in the winter and heat in the summer

Provide cleaner environment for animals and people

Allows buildings to last longer

Poor ventilation can cause a build-up of compounds that may:

Impair a calf’s immune response

Cause respiratory problems

Make the calf more prone to pathogens

Reduce feed intake and conversion rates

A small investment in switches, thermostats and timers may pay off by keeping control of the environment even when workers aren’t around.

Too much air flow in the calves’ environment can chill the calf, which takes energy
away from growth. In cold weather, check for drafts and adjust or repair the
sources as needed.

Calves housed outside should be able to move out of the elements and away from drafts. Hutches should allow steady air flow without draft.

The optimal temperature for calves is 60 F in still air. This temperature promotes maximum
performance and provides the least stress. A reasonable comfort range is 50 to 85 F.

When air temperature falls below 50 F, the calf uses food energy to keep warm. This takes energy away from production or growth. Ultimately this leads to reduced feed efficiency. Cold stress also increases the time it takes newborn calves to absorb colostrum.

Temperatures over 85 F will increase breath rate, cause sweating and raise body temperature. Thus calves will eat less to lower heat produced from digesting and absorbing nutrients. As a result growth rate declines. Warmer interior air also allows for more moisture to evaporate and increases manure gases produced.

Many factors can affect a calf’s ideal temperature range including:

Humidity

Wind-chill factors

Moisture due to rain or mud

When it’s cold and humid you may need to provide more heat in closed, insulated buildings
to reduce changes in temperature.

You can house calves in hutches even during severe cold. But the calf will need a special
diet to get enough protein and energy to stay warm.

Provide shade from direct sunlight. Heat-stressed calves will go off feed, may overheat and
even die.

When grouping older calves together, make sure there’s enough shade for all calves. Check the shaded area regularly and keep it dry and clean.

Optimal relative humidity for calf housing is around 65 to 75 percent.

Humidity can cause calves to become damp and sick. A drier environment can reduce pathogen growth and risk of illness. This is especially important in winter with low temperatures, and high humidity. Cold air carries and removes less moisture than warm air.

While breathing, a calf can give off almost 2 gallons of water daily as water vapor.

If this vapor collects in the air around the calf, water will gather on the walls, bedding and the calf’s hair coat. The hair coat loses its ability to hold heat when it gets damp. As a result it’s harder for the calf to keep warm. Calves can die from being chilled even at temperatures above freezing.